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I had composed a review of Day 1 while I was at the summit and even though my plan was to write reviews for each day while at the summit; my days were so busy that I never got a chance to finish them.When I got back to Trinidad, I decided to sum up the events for the day into one post however this post also suffered some delays due to all my free time being focused on SQLSaturday #102.

Finally I was able to complete this post, let the review begin!

Day 2

This was actually the first day for the summit and during the keynote I was doing my Day 1 Experience post. Even though I was writing, I was still paying attention!

Day 2: At the Exhibit Hall

PASS President Rushabh Mehta kicked off the keynote by highlighting the value of community and expressing his appreciation for all the hard work done by people who made PASS what it is today. He then introduced the Corporate Vice President of the Business Platform Division, Ted Kummert, who made an important Microsoft announcement that SQL Server "Denali" is officially rolling out as SQL Server 2012!

After the keynote, the rest of my day was as follows:

·Attended my first session which was 'This Ain’t your Father’s Cloud' presented by Buck Woody and Kevin Kline, great session with great presenters.

·Went to the PASS Chapters Lunch and sat with my fellow LATAM Chapter Leaders and members. It was nice to meet Diego Nogare and Allan Koo in person.

·My next session for the day was the Lightning talk session which was a wise idea since I got to see Rob Farley’s and Buck Woody’s awesome performance.

·From 4:45pm until 8:15pm I was working in the Exhibit Hall talking to possible sponsors and trying to collect items for the SQLSaturday event in Trinidad.

·At the end of the day I met my friend Paras Doshi and went to the SolidQ Meet and Greet event, the one time for the year that I get to see most of the people that I interact with via email and Lync!

Day 3

Second day of the summit and the day I was looking forward to for a few weeks because I was actually going to be on the bloggers table and I also had to moderate the Lighting talks session. I was there early to set up and was ready to go … or so I believed! Trust me live blogging is not as easy as it looks or maybe it is just not easy for me. For details about the keynote for day 2 see my live blog post: Day 2 Keynote.

Day 3: Me at the Bloggers Table

Details for the rest of the day:

·Back to work in the Exhibit Hall for SQLSaturday #102! I was so busy walking around talking to people that I didn’t notice that lunch time was almost over which meant that I missed the Women in Technology lunch (nooooo!) and I also didn’t eat lunch (Sigh!).

·Lightning talk time and I had my first one stage presence at PASS ever! I wasn't presenting but I was nervous, however the lack of food overpowered my nervous reaction. The presenters were great, the sessions rocked, the audience was pleasant and I Lori Edwards gave me support to survive the session. After the session I thought it very possible for me to do a session in front of a PASS Summit audience. Maybe next year!

·The session finished at 2:45pm and the Exhibit Hall was closing at 5pm so it was back to work.

·I left the conference venue at 5:15pm with books and other items and went to relax in the hotel for 15 minutes before heading to an Idera event and then the Community Appreciation Party!

·After eating with the MidnightDBAs and roaming around the party for a while I decided to go back to my hotel to sleep because I was real tired. It was a long hard day but still lots of fun.

Day 4

Last day at the summit and I had nothing extra to get done! Enjoyed some breakfast and went to take in the last keynote for the summit which was started by Rick Heiges. Before Rick could introduce the keynote speaker that everybody was looking forward to seeing, he brought up Rob Farley and Buck Woody to perform the same song that they did in the first Lightning talk session. Apparently many people spoke highly of it so he was asked for an encore.

Rushabh Mehta presenting Wayne Snyder
with an award for his contribution to the PASS Community

After the performance, Rick highlighted some upcoming events such as SQL Rally Dallas which is being held May 11th-12th and PASS Summit 2012 which is being held November 6-9 in Seattle. He also mentioned the Trinidad and Tobago SQL Saturday which is happening on November 11th 2011.

He then introduced Dr. David DeWitt whose keynote title is ‘Big Data: What's the Big Deal?’ It was a great keynote but instead of me telling you about it I think you should view it yourself: Keynote Day 3.

After the great keynote I decided to go to Brad McGehee's session 'Inside the SQL Server Transaction Log' but as soon as I entered the room I remembered that I had to meet Aaron Nelson for some books and I had to talk to PASS about getting some other items. Since I had things to do I decided I might as well spend the last day meeting new people, saying goodbyes and also getting some autographs for the books that I received. Oh wait, I forgot that I attended the PASS Board of Directors Meetings and thanked them all for the assistance they have given me for the past few days with getting ready for my event.

Even though it was a hard work week, I still got time to meet many people, learn at some sessions and have fun. So the end result was that it was a great week. I can't wait for the PASS Summit 2012!